Will a wolf spider eat a praying mantis?
Wolf spiders and praying mantises eat each other. If one is bigger than the other, and is hungry, the larger of the two will likely eat the smaller. If they are both about the same size, it depends who sees who first, and who is hungrier. In the northeast U.S., large wolf spiders and large chinese mantises compete for food all the time, and only the adult female chinese mantises can overpower and eat adult wolf spiders. Usually the mantis can avoid being bitten by using the dexterity of it’s forelegs to re-position it in such a way that the spider’s fangs cannot reach any part of the mantis. The mantis then slowly will eat the spider alive. But if the spider is on the hunt, and sneaks up behind a mantis that is not paying attention, one quick bite would probably be enough to subdue the mantis. This has been studied extensively in northeast U.S. meadows, where both large wolf spiders and large praying mantises live. Look at the book “The Praying Mantids” by Dr. Frederick Prete. It’s ver
